META: questions, like about what type of participation, from an artist

[David Melik]

Eyrie.org seems to have a FAQ for this newsgroup that says the it is
largely about fiction, but that there may also be art in the archives.
Is this newsgroup also one in which artists and writers can meet to work
on comics projects?

I am a lifelong fine/realist/comic artist (and award-winning) who did
60+ pages of mostly unpublished (except in a 'zine by a high school
friend), traditional/non-digital comics (but I am getting into digital),
and I seek writers (non-right-wing, not religious fanatic) to work with,
for anything from one-panel strips to full standard issue comic-sized
stories (or sequential art), for now. My favourite genre is fantasy (or
myth, fairy tale, magic, occult, etc.) in ancient and modern settings,
and, to some extent, science fantasy (my favourite in text probably
Robert Silverberg's Majipoor series, but some of my favourite superhero
stuff like 'Wonder Woman', maybe in its wider universe context, could be
called 'science fantasy'), and I like some 'harder' science fiction
(SF) but not so much as fantasy, though I have read more 'hard
SF' (including a lot of 'Star Wars', which could be called science
fantasy as well). I also like superhero parody, and actually, almost
any other genre as long as it has an element of fantasy, except genres
seen as increasing emotions in the belly, like romance, horror,
thrillers, though romance in a story, or 'horror' also standard to
fantasy is okay. I also do not like genres that were sort of 'made up
back in time', like 'steampunk', or almost, similarly into the future,
like 'cyberpunk' SF... except I have read one major 'cyberpunk' story
(_Neuromancer_) and have seen a couple films ('Johhny Mnemonic', 'The
Matrix') and liked those, but I do not see why 'punk' has to be put
into it, and in that SF, did not really see major 'punk' elements (so, 
much 'cyberpunk' I am not necessarily against, and I also am interested
in the various 'hacker' subcultures--mostly the original MIT/UCB
one--but do not see much connection with 'punk'). On the other hand, I
like avant-garde art/writing and--to an extent--surrealism. Another
thing I am not going to do is fan-fiction except maybe of stuff in
public domain, but I would prefer it only used for literary allusion,
and besides that, I also prefer didactic literature, especially of a
philosophical/Pythagorean/Platonic/Cartesian/German-Idealism/pagan
nature.

Any writer I work with would preferably be, like me, on a grammar
level that is A-level (USA) according to college/university (or through
the end of graduation year in grammar/high school) English, and
equivalently good even by British standards, and be able to write
in-depth by those standards such as run-on sentences being considered
longer in UK than USA, such as J.R.R. Tolkien's ones seeming pretty
normal. This is not to say text should 'overpower' the story, but as a
lifelong artist, I suppose I seek lifelong, original writers. I am a
writer/poet (even epic poet, i.e. writing long story poems that are
like 'The Iliad', though my epic is an epyllion--short epic) myself but
just do not want to bother with that aspect of storytelling currently,
and I would also prefer if writers I work with are capable of epic
poetry. One of my top two favourite cartoons/comics, 'Rupert' (a
British children's comic about an anthropomorphic bear cub), can be
considered an epic poetic cartoon or sequential art series. My other
favourite is 'Prince Valiant'--I like comics in which the words are not
in the area of the art. I also seek writers who can do what I think is
called 'full script' style, detailing the script enough for me to draw
quickly, and in whatever detail is important to them (whatever the
style is called, I think it is associated with DC).

Below are links to my art. If I was showing you in person, I would show
my best large illustrations/paintings (up to 6x4 ft.) and sculptures,
which look better in real life. Some of my online photographs are old
(like from some of the first digital cameras) or not done perfectly
(though I am a better photographer than almost anyone I know, just not
professional), and at the links, there are just as many sketches and
works in progress, so it might take a while to find the good stuff. If
you do not like it, or think it is not 'good' compared to maybe digital
stuff and/or less realistic stuff of some style you prefer, note that I
am not interested in any advice or criticism, except maybe constructive
criticism (left as comments on the two sites that allow) from older
(around 36+ or 37+), better artists who also do
myth-related/SF&F/dynamic realism and even photorealism.

David
http://www.elfwood.com/u/dmelik
http://dchmelik.deviantart.com
http://www.cwu.edu/~melikd/art.html